Breaking the chains of what is, liberated to pursue what may be.

A Christian Voice on the Health Care Debate: From “Mind your own business” to Speaking Out for Love and Justice

Like many of you, I have watched the painful footage of congressional town hall meetings where ordinary people divulged their most personal and private health information in a collective effort to convince their representatives to mend-not-end the benefits provided under the Affordable Care Act. Such imagery is quite difficult to view and impossible to forget.

I just do not get what is exceptional about US social and political systems that require citizens to essentially beg their political leaders, in public forums, to protect and improve legislation designed to provide potentially life-preserving and life-extending medical treatment to those who cannot obtain such treatment through their own resources alone. Furthermore, I am amazed at how the curators and guardians of such systems frequently benefit from uncritical and unchallenged acceptance of their stances by many who identify as being adherents of Christianity.

While I hold no monopoly on what constitutes authentic Christian faith, I firmly believe that there is no legitimate theological cover for political leaders, many of them people of faith with significant if not unfathomable wealth, and their supporters to strip vital health coverage from the most vulnerable of their constituents.

Along with telephone calls, email notes, and tweets that call on Congress to protect medical insurance for all citizens and especially the most vulnerable – steps we must take today, I think it is time for more of us Christians to make as part of our ministries the engagement of legislators, their staffs, and the public itself in the study of scripture, as somehow, the biblical Jesus, who through his love/justice world view, healed the sick, upheld and extended dignity to the poor and marginalized, and challenged and condemned unjust social practices and political norms, has been repurposed.

In the minds of many political leaders and scores of their constituents, the mission of repurposed Jesus is to a. preside over the “mind your own business” code of social conduct that allows for looking over or past the suffering of others while attending to our own affairs; b. usher “believers” into heaven when they die while calling them to just be nice, self-focused, risk avoiding people while on earth; c. serve as the holy defender of the social and political privileges of the powerful few while maintaining the invisibility and irrelevance of the masses; and d. confer the titles of blessed, wise or “favored” on those who gain wealth and power through the humiliation of the poor domestically and globally.

While our nation sincerely needs deeper and more honest political conversations on health care and other critical matters, I think that those of us who understand and, by God’s grace, attempt to live the love/justice dimensions of Christianity, as modeled by Jesus himself must take swift, clear and decisive steps to articulate and add to the conversation the good news about Jesus as Savior who has the power to transform individuals as well as the systems that influence their lives. We must share the good news about biblical Jesus as caring liberator of oppressed, silenced, hurting, and despised people. It is the love/justice-oriented ministry of this Jesus that anchors and animates the ministry of his followers to stand up for laws and policies that enable all people to receive full access to the resources they need to live out their God-given potential. Health care is one such resource. Thus, the health care debate is not merely a political concern; it is a theological issue as well. God loves all of humanity and is therefore is a stakeholder in this debate.

Political ideologies, as important and impressive as they may be, possess limited redemptive and transformative properties. However, those of us who function as clay jar carriers of the redemptive and transformative power of God made known through Jesus Christ, know of God’s limitless capacity for caring and God’s unending willingness to extend compassion. Inasmuch as the elements of care and compassion have been absent from much of the health care debate with costs most often occupying the center stage, I believe that Christians must now join with partners from other faith traditions in speaking up and speaking out our collective convictions about God’s love/justice vision for humanity. As we do this, we will recognize that there is a social and political wilderness all around us that is crying out for a voice of care and compassion. Now, right now, is our moment to be that voice. Let us use this day to demand that our lawmakers commit their energies to efforts that will ensure that every person who needs health insurance may receive it in the most affordable and accessible ways possible, without having to beg and make themselves vulnerable at town hall meetings.

Dr. Jack Sullivan, Jr.

Preacher, commentator, and advocate for social change, the Reverend Dr. Jack Sullivan, Jr. is an ordained minister in the Protestant Christian denomination known as the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) US and Canada and is the senior pastor of First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Findlay, Ohio.
During his 35-year ministerial career, Dr. Sullivan has served as congregational pastor, Christian educator, regional minister, consultant, non-profit director, and ecumenical leader. A native of Cleveland, OH, Dr. Sullivan earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Ohio University, Athens, OH; a Master of Divinity degree from Lexington Theological Seminary, Lexington, KY; and a Doctor of Ministry degree from United Theological Seminary, Dayton, OH. He also engaged in graduate studies at Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA, and has received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Bethany College, Bethany, WV.
A leading ecumenist, peace and justice activist, death penalty abolitionist, men's retreat leader, and lecturer on the dynamics of church governance and transformation, Dr. Sullivan is a life member of both the NAACP and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. He is also the Chairperson of the board of directors of Ohioans to Stop Executions, Co-President of the Disciples Justice Action Network (DJAN), and a board member of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Ohio, the Ohio Council of Churches, EcuMentors National Men's Ministry, and Century Health of Findlay. Dr. Sullivan is skilled in group facilitation, church administration, and non-violent, anti-racist conflict resolution. He is soon to publish a book of some of his more popular sermons, as well as a work addressing African American life and ministry within a predominantly White denomination.
Dr. Sullivan is married to the Rev. Sekinah Hamlin, Director of Faith Affairs for the Center for Responsible Lending, Durham, NC, and is father of Nia, 24, a Disciples of Christ/United Church of Christ Global Missions Staff Person working as a social worker on the staff of the Council of Churches of Sierra Leone, ; Imani who is married and living in Cleveland, OH; Jacquelyn, a second year Presidential and Bonner Scholar at Guilford College, Greensboro, NC; Kelly, 5; and Jackson, 4.